Movie Review: The Two Popes
SPOILER ALERT: I will discuss elements of the film’s plot, so I encourage you to watch the film before reading this review. You can watch this film currently on Netflix.
I’m not sure what excited me more when I first heard about The Two Popes prior to its 2019 release - the fact that it’s a major film that deals with religious themes or that it boasted Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins in the titular lead roles.
These two titans of the acting profession have given us many incredible performances over the years. Surely Hopkins’ performance as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs springs to mind. But Pryce has, in my opinion, long been in a similar echelon of acting talent. Here, they both dazzle as the two most recent popes - Pope Francis (Pryce) and Pope Benedict XVI (Hopkins).
The film quickly depicts Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s rise to becoming Pope Benedict XVI before it gets to its main focus - a meeting between Pope Bendict XVI and then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to discuss Bergoglio’s requested retirement.
The film has a key insight into the competing notions of conservatism and reform. The script hints at these in seemingly small ways, like an early scene where Ratzinger and Bergoglio are washing their hands prior to the conclave that named Ratzinger as Pope. Bergoglio is humming ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” and Ratzinger asks him which hymn it is that he is singing. A later scene, once the film’s main plot has been introduced, has Pope Benedict noticing that Cardinal Bergoglio’s shoelaces are undone before they begin to walk together. These subtle cues help introduce us to the two differing factions that these men represent. One is hardlined and focused on holding to the tradional elements of the faith while the other holds love in the highest regard and is open to faithful discussion.
It was Pope Benedict who was viewed as the “watchdog of the faith.” Though I am not Catholic, I was raised in a conservative, Protestant environment. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve wrestled with my faith in key ways and found it to be the firm foundation I depended on in my youth - I simply engage with it and live it out a little differently now. As such, I resonated with so much of what takes place on screen.
I respect elders in the faith who have such a strong determination to hold to the elements that they’ve been taught from their youth. I truly do respect that level of fortitude. It takes a certain kind of courage. However, as I read the Scriptures and I engage with communities of faith and people around me who are not in the faith, I’m increasingly led to focus on loving even “the least of these” as Matthew 25:40 encourages. As such, I think there are some traditions of the church that need to be molded to make sure we are loving others like we should.
One thing I appreciate, though, is the film’s empathy towards Pope Benedict. It would be easy with the way the film is structured for us to completely connect to Bergoglio and then see Pope Benedict as a harsh figure - almost a villain in the story. But that would be false, and the film understands this. Pope Benedict and Cardinal Bergoglio might have disagreed on many things, but they agreed on things of importance. More than that, the film shows us the loneliness of Pope Benedict’s situation, and this gives us room for empathy.
The film has a fine script (by Anthony McCarten), and its direction (by Fernando Meirelles) and cinematography (by Cesar Charlone) support the story well by getting out of the way. To call this a chamber piece might verge on the cliche, but it certainly is a focused story. These two characters and their conversations and what those conversations represent are our sole interest. The story will go to other places and times (and these interludes give us some of the film’s most striking imagery), but those diversions are only to give us more information about the context of the conversation between these two men.
From a technical standpoint, the aspects of the film that deserve the most praise are the production design (Mark Tildesley), art direction (Saverio Sammali), and set decoration (Livia Del Priore, Veronique Melery, Natalia Mendiburu, and German Naglieri). Both the scenes that take place in Italy and the ones in flashback in Argentina are beautifully constructed. But the most impressive is easily when the story moves into the Sistine Chapel. Yes, this team actually recreated Michelangelo’s masterwork. This article from Architectural Digest gives insight into the incredible work of film’s design team, and it displays beautifully on screen.
At the end of the day though, all of the film’s technical prowess is in support of the performances by its two main actors. Pryce and Hopkins are both incredible, though I would give the nod to Pryce if asked to pick between the two. Certainly it is Pryce who gives the lead performance, as the film is skewed more towards the perspective of Bergoglio who becomes Pope Francis by the film’s end. Their interplay is fascinating, and the work of the hair and makeup crew is absolutly mesmerizing. Both actors look exactly like the men they play.
I appreciate this film a great deal. It would have been easy to make it one-sided or to fail to give the distinct notions of faith their fair share. But the film walks this line beautifully and ends up depicting what a life lived among the faithful should look like. Will we agree on all the finer points of theology? No, we won’t. But that should not keep us from loving one another, dancing together, and even watching the World Cup together from time to time.
“Did Jesus build walls? His face is a face of mercy...mercy is the dynamite that blows down walls.”
NOTE ON CONTENT: The film is rated PG-13, mainly for some “disturbing violent images” that come from the flashback scenes to Father Bergolio’s time in war-torn Argentina. Much of the film takes place in small rooms with the two men talking to one another. There is mention of the investigations into sexual abuse in the church, but nothing is shown on screen. The film’s subject matter of faith may be difficult, but I think this is a film that most ages should be able to engage with.